January 18, 2018

Martinez rebuffs speculation about post-term plans

ByAndrew Oxford, Santa Fe New Mexican | January 18, 2018

Gov. Susana Martinez speaks to reporters at the Albuquerque Marriott on March 27, 2017.

Guessing what Gov. Susana Martinez might do next after she leaves the state’s top elected office at the end of 2018 has become something of a parlor game in New Mexico politics.

Just a few years ago, observers occasionally mentioned the two-term Republican as a potential vice-presidential nominee in 2016.

Too late for that but might she run for U.S. Senate?

“Why would I want to be one of 100?” she said Thursday.

What about becoming a federal judge?

Boring, the governor replied.

At the end of a press conference in her cabinet room, Martinez invited reporters to toss out rumors about her next political move and proceeded to knock down one idea after another, seeming eager to address theories that have run rampant but leaving unanswered a big question that looms over New Mexico politics.

The Republican’s political prospects were particularly bright just a few years ago. She led the Republican Governors Association and seemed to be just the woman the party needed to keep from working itself into a corner as a party for white men. But that was before the ascent of Donald Trump and a slide in her own approval ratings.

Martinez openly sparred with the man who would become president, though she has since been more conciliatory.

And political observers have come to interpret just about anything the governor does as a maneuver towards some sort of future political — or at least public — office.

After regents at New Mexico State University declined to extend former Gov. Garrey Carruthers’ contract as chancellor, some politicians assumed Martinez wanted the job for herself. She has denied that.

A few months ago, a rumor swirled that the district attorney-turned-governor might want to be dean of the University of New Mexico Law School.

“I’ll never walk into another law school in my life,” Martinez told reporters on Thursday night.

What about U.S. Attorney General? Martinez said she had not thought about it.

The governor said she has “no inkling” what will come after her term ends.

“I may be in my last year but I’m not done until I’m done,” she said. “… My last day, I will not have a plan but to leave this office and figure it out from there.”

The governor suggested family considerations will bear on any such decisions, mentioning that she takes care of her sister, who has a disability, and has a brother in El Paso.

But Martinez added: “I enjoy working a lot and so I won’t sit back and do nothing, that’s for sure.”

New Mexico school districts that had hoped to put a little more cushion in their budgets managed to persuade a sympathetic Legislature, but couldn’t get it past the governor’s veto pen. When she signed the 2018-2019 budget on March 7, Gov. Susana Martinez struck a line through $5 million state lawmakers had set aside to repay some school districts whose cash accounts had been swept by $40.

New Mexico’s Republican Party condemned the Gov. Susana Martinez administration Thursday for reportedly paying out $1.7 million in confidential settlements to former state officials. “We are deeply troubled by the recent breaking news about secret payouts to state employees that appear to have violated state procedures which are supposed to protect taxpayers from paying out frivolous claims,” a press release from the party said.

Holtec International was in the news last month when the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied requests from some groups to hold an additional hearing over the company’s license to build an interim storage site in southeastern New Mexico to hold nuclear waste from commercial power plants.